The Arizona Grassroots Action PAC has been running a negative ad about Kelli Ward for weeks on radio stations and FaceBook. The ad claims she failed to support our military with the funding needed to pay the troops. It also claims she sponsored a bill to prevent law enforcement in Arizona from cooperating with the feds to prevent terrorism.

Both claims are false.

Every year, Congress passes a National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to fund the military. A serious criticism of the 2013 NDAA was that it continued to include a provision that allows the military to detain individuals, including US citizens, indefinitely and without trial, as part of the war on terror.

Kelli Ward was a State Senator and couldn’t vote on the NDAA, but she was asked about the bill and specifically about the indefinite detention of individuals issue on a talk radio show. The show is Love, Guns, and Freedom with Luca Zanna, and the discussion about the NDAA with Kelli Ward is part of the December 1, 2013 show. That’s where the quote “I don’t support the bill” comes from. It was in response to a direct question about the indefinite detention provision.

The second issue concerns Arizona SB1156 in 2014. Dr. Ward was the prime sponsor, along with 13 co-sponsors. The Grassroots Action PAC claims the bill would restrict Arizona law enforcement from cooperating with the feds to fight terrorism. Do you remember back when we found out the NSA was monitoring our phone calls? That it wasn’t just suspected terrorists' international calls like we’d been told? It was everybody’s calls all the time? And people were wondering what had happened to their Fourth Amendment protections from search and seizure? SB1156 stated that the NSA and other federal agencies that wanted cooperation from local law enforcement in their investigations and wanted to collect information in Arizona had to get a warrant. No cooperation without a warrant.

The AZ Grassroots Action PAC was organized in 2014 supposedly to support or oppose multiple federal candidates and is classified as an independent expenditure committee.

“Let us, then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect that…we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic and wicked. But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists.”

"As we approach the presidential election of 2016, conservatives need a strong dose of purpose and harmony. We have witnessed the politics of personal destruction at a level even more intense than occurred during the 2012 election cycle. After that failed attempt by conservatives to capture the White House, much post-election analytical activity concluded that the Republican candidates had once again snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by crucifying one another, leaving President Obama with relatively little work to do to win despite his dismal record on the economy and international relationships."

Dr. Carson ends the article with this:

"It is time for us to think about our patriotic ancestors who sacrificed much, in many cases even their lives, to provide opportunities that we now enjoy. It is our turn to be responsible."

As to Donald Trump's popularity, Scott S. Powell believes that Trump possesses "qualities that are among those most vital to rebuilding relations with America’s allies and restoring respect -- even fear -- from adversaries. Mr. Trump’s directness also suggests he is the best-suited presidential candidate to take on America’s insolvency. He could be the president who corrects the nation’s out-of-control spending, deficits and unsustainable debt. Trump’s toughness may be the key virtue needed to rule in a divided country and to successfully downsize and restructure federal agencies and get Washington out of the way of the American economy and its people."

As former President of the Arizona Senate, as former Chief Deputy to Sheriff Joe, as former 1st Vice Chair of the Arizona Republican Party and as a consistent Constitutional defender of our Founders Constitution, as Tea Party Patriot, I stand with the majority of Arizona Republicans and America in standing with Donald Trump.